Military Aviation News Archive
11/30/2013
The Air Force mission that calls for it to dominate the air, transport troops and materiel and provide communications and intelligence are all critical to American military success, but performing them is hard for the public to visualize because much of this goes on behind the scenes, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III said.
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11/30/2013
The Pentagon said yesterday that American forces will continue normal operations despite China scrambling fighter jets to monitor US and Japanese aircraft in Beijing’s newly declared air defense zone. China’s announcement last weekend that it was extending an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over islands disputed by China and Japan was disregarded by several nations, and US B-52 bombers entered the area.
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11/30/2013
On the surface, the fight over whether to protect the A-10 combat aircraft, affectionately known as “the Warthog,” looks like nothing more than a typical Beltway slugfest, with those who love it squaring off against those who want to leave it, and all being far from the attention of taxpayers.
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11/30/2013
The Czech Defence Ministry says it is close to a deal to sell most of its surplus combat planes. The potential buyer, the US firm Draken International, is reportedly interested in acquiring 28 L-159 planes that would be used as practice targets for US pilots. If agreement is reached, the Defence Ministry will receive around 500 million crowns for the planes.
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11/30/2013
A senior Russian defense official said Friday that talks will be held next month on the planned deployment of an airbase in Belarus. Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told reporters in Moscow that several potential locations have been identified in Belarus, but that further consultations were needed with the neighboring former Soviet nation's authorities.
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11/30/2013
A helicopter that was attacked in eastern Afghanistan apparently belonged to a Russian company, Russian diplomats said Friday. Unidentified men fired at the helicopter in the province of Gardez on Thursday. No injuries were reported, and damage from the attack was limited to a single bullet hole in the aircraft’s side, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Kabul said.
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11/29/2013
The Chinese planes had conducted "normal air patrols" yesterday as "a defensive measure and in line with international common practices,'' said Shen Jinke, spokesman for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force, according to state news agency Xinhua. Shen said China's air force would remain on high alert and take measures to protect the security of the country's airspace.
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11/29/2013
The RAF has begun training on the Puma Mk2 helicopter following a multi-million pound upgrade programme. Crews from the RAF’s 33 and 230 Squadrons are carrying out training flights on the upgraded aircraft from their base at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire. The £260 million upgrade means that the helicopters benefit from new engines which give them 35% more power and improved fuel efficiency to allow them to fly faster and twice as far as the Puma Mk1. They also have highly advanced digitised glass co
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11/29/2013
The Department of Defense announced 20 defense contracts Wednesday, worth $334.2 million in aggregate. Among the winners:
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11/29/2013
The deafening roar of state-of-the-art warplanes being catapulted into the air from its huge flight deck signaled that the USS George Washington was back in combat mode after its recent detour to the Philippines to take part in the aid effort in the wake of Super Typhoon Haiyan. Barely a week on and the 90,000-ton Nimitz-class aircraft carrier is now patrolling waters off the island of Okinawa as part a huge naval exercise - AnnualEx 2013 - involving dozens of warships, submarines and aircraft f
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11/29/2013
Work to integrate the MBDA Storm Shadow cruise missile onto the Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft has begun in Italy, it was announced on 28 November. Alenia Aermacchi commenced flight trials the day prior aboard the twin-seat Instrumented Production Aircraft 2 (IPA2) updated to the Phase 1 Enhancement standard. Eurofighter partner companies BAE Systems and Cassidian are assisting with the trials at Decimomannu Air Base in Sardinia.
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11/29/2013
Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday urged his country to upgrade its combat aviation system with respect to "honoured delivery schedules and guaranteed quality". "Work on prospective frontline aviation complex has been in full swing. I have no doubt these plans will be implemented. The work on the long-range aviation complex must start now," reported Xinhua citing Putin during a meeting with air force commanders in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
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11/29/2013
"The Air Chief flew Su-30 with his son, Squadron Leader Omar Browne, also a Su-30 pilot posted to 20 Squadron there, in what would be recorded as the last sortie in the Air Chief's log book," an IAF release said here. During Browne's tenure, his son got several opportunities to display his flying skills in different exercises including the Exercise Ironfist in Jaisalmer earlier this year.
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11/29/2013
Russia will begin the full-scale R&D work on its future strategic bomber in 2014, a senior aircraft-manufacturing industry official said Thursday. The project, known as PAK-DA (an acronym meaning “future long-range aircraft”), has been in the works for several years but was given the formal go-ahead by the Russian leadership last year.
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11/29/2013
Three new regiments equipped with S-400 Triumf air defense missile systems will be put in service with the Russian armed forces next year, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. “Two S-400 regiments were presented to the Russian military this year. Another three [regiments] should be put in service in 2014,” Putin said at a meeting on the development of Russia’s aerospace defenses.
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11/28/2013
China acknowledged Wednesday it let two American B-52 bombers fly unhindered through its newly declared air defense zone in the East China Sea despite its earlier threat to take defensive measures against unidentified foreign aircraft. The U.S. flights, which tested the Chinese zone for the first time since it was declared over the weekend, raised questions about Beijing's determination to enforce its requirement that foreign aircraft identify themselves and accept Chinese instructions.
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11/28/2013
Caroline Kennedy, the new U.S. ambassador to Japan, criticized China's establishing an air defense zone that included disputed islands in the East China Sea. In her first speech as ambassador, Kennedy said Wednesday Beijing's unilateral decision raised tensions while voicing support for Japan's efforts to ramp up its security measures, such as establishing a national security council, The Japan Times reported.
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11/28/2013
The Air Force is eliminating selective reenlistment bonuses for 46 career fields and cutting retraining opportunities for hundreds of airmen in over-manned specialties as the service prepares to trim the force by as many as 25,000 airmen over the next several years.
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11/28/2013
The Department of Defense offered several contracts aggregating $263.4 million yesterday. Of the contenders was The Boeing Company ( BA ) which clinched two back-to-back contracts totaling $26.9 million. The larger contract worth $18.1 million went to Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office, a collaborative venture between Textron Inc. and Boeing. This involves providing continued logistics services to the different versions of the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft operated by the U.S.
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11/28/2013
The U.S. ranks as the leading supplier of defense aircraft for Asia-Pacific partners and allies, according to an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis of data provided by Avascent Analytics. The U.S. will have sold about $79.2 billion worth of defense aircraft and related equipment, including both development and production costs, between fiscal 2009-2023 to Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, the analysis shows.
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11/28/2013
Air force chief Air Marshal Geoff Brown said he was disappointed with decisions by Port Stephens Council to provide exemptions to its planning rules for some developments near RAAF Williamtown, north of Newcastle. He said new developments were inside the contours on the Australian Noise Exposure Forecast (ANEF) map that were deemed unsuitable by the relevant Australian Standards.
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11/28/2013
The military's still investigating the cause of an unmanned drone crash into Lake Ontario two weeks ago, but has determined it's safe to put the aircraft back in the air over Central and Northern New York. The New York Air National Guard announced today that it started training with the drones again on Tuesday.
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11/28/2013
The countdown timer reaches zero and me and fourteen other team mates take off in two large groups, boosting our engines to gain altitude. I level out my old Soviet I-5 biplane, used extensively during the 1930s, and scan the horizon for the enemy. It doesn’t take long before the two sides reach each other and I spot a wing of hostiles ahead but several hundred metres below. I angle down and line up a target, waiting to get within firing range before unloading the old pair of 7.62mm guns.
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11/28/2013
Tucson has a long association with aviation, so it’s fitting that the city has one of the finest air museums in the world. The Pima Air and Space Museum, opened in 1976, is truly a local treasure. The 80-acre facility has about 300 military and civilian aircraft. Many are stored indoors in hangar space the size of four football fields.
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11/28/2013
Russian air defense forces have taken delivery of six Pantsir-S short-range air defense systems to be used by a new missile regiment formed to protect the skies over Moscow, military officials said Wednesday. The Pantsir-S battalion is set to form part of a third S-400 air defense missile regiment deployed near the Russian capital.
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